Little Easton – Uttlesford Local Plan

The village of Little Easton has a population of 350 people and shares a boundary with the much larger town of Great Dunmow.

Land Securities have announced their wish to build a major extension to Great Dunmow on the first 140 hectare parcel of their massive 700 hectare site, building an initial 700 houses. The location for this initial development is inside Little Easton and straddles the Dunmow boundary. If approved it would, in effect, consume Little Easton as a suburb of Dunmow.

Uttlesford District Council refused the application in 2013. Land Securities appealed the refusal and the appeal is yet to be determined after it was ‘called in’ by the Secretary of State. Read about the Land Securities applications.

If the Land Securities planning application were approved, it would likely open the door for the development of the whole site. This would in-effect create a new town to the east of Stansted Airport that would combine Takeley, Little Canfield, Broxted and Little Easton.

2015 new Local Plan Context

After their draft Local Plan was rejected, Uttlesford District Council started a new Local Plan process in 2015. The start of the process included a ‘call for sites’. This asked all landowners and developers to come forward with land that they’d like to develop within the Local Plan period. In effect this means between now and 2033. There are a surplus of potential development sites across the district, so the council will consult and consider which ones it wishes to include as part of its Local Plan.

Development Sites Being Considered

Below are the possible new (2015) Local Plan sites in the village. In additional the Gnome Campus announced its intention to build 1,500 new homes on land to the north-west of the village (in the areas marked 45 and 46 on the map).